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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

I fooled around with the piano for a couple of years but didnt learn anything as I didnt have an instructor nor did I have any music knowledge. I began taking lessons with an instructor exactly 1 year ago.

Over the course of a year (minus about 13 weeks with no lessons over the summer and other out of town occurrences) I worked with a few books, Piano Adventures level 4, Line a Day sight reading level 4 and dozen a day technique. Before I started lessons I had a very hard time even recognizing the notes on the keyboard or the staff with any sort of speed. After a year I finished Line a day Level 4 and I am 80% done with ABRSM Specimen sight reading tests Grade 4. My sight reading ability has skyrocketed. I no longer have to play slowly or rarely pause. Now I am working on all of the other aspects of sight reading such as the dynamics and expression etc.

I finished PA level 4 and have moved on to level 5 and am about 1/3 of the way through this book. The slowest progress has been through dozen a day, I am only about 50% done with that book as she is a stickler for technique (we just recently started scales, because she wanted my technique to be perfect first) and I have to be completely masterful before we are able to move on. And we never move on from the old, just move up to a new one. The only time old technique practices fall off are when newer ones are similar. I have noticed I have had to most trouble with the series of 16th notes and hand unevenness, to this day I am still working on that.

I was almost forced but not really, but sort of..lol, to participate in a recital that the music school I attend puts on, by that point I was only 20% into PA 4 and really didnt feel confident to play infront of people, let alone in front of a lot of people and be the oldest there by far! I am 28 btw and the average kid performing was about 9. To top it off 2 easier pieces than most of them! lol. Embarrassing, initially, but it turned out to be a great experience. I look forward to participating again this year.

I have to say that my skills are light years ahead of where they started and for those of you who are older, you can do it! I know we all say we dont have time, but we do, I am a 2nd year medical student and A LOT of my time is already consumed with studying and school related activities, but I still find time to work out and practice piano. I may be going slow (Im not sure how quickly people usually progress) but I enjoy every moment along the way.

I had a few questions: is the PA series 4-5 appropriate for an adult? Also, how long to people usually spend on these books? Is level 4 ABRSM sight reading where I should be at this point (1 yr of lessons) or should I be further ahead? And last but not least, I plan on staying with my teacher until I graduate (May 2015) And I wanted to know if there is even a snowballs chance in ____, that I could potentially be able to play Chopins Ballade #1 after the next 2.5 years? Given the amount of time which I have to practice, which for the next couple of years with rotations around, will probably be 1-1.5 hrs a day on avg. I really hope it doesnt take 5 or 10 years for me to be able to play a piece like this, but IDK, and my instructor says she wont say no or yes, because so many things factor into that.

I can't give you any idea about time frames or predictions, but I do want to congratulate you on your fantastic progress! You are really movin along well!

Why don't you submit a piece to the e-cital? Submissions can be made for another 11 days and some hours.... could be fun!

_________________________ XVIII-XXXVISometimes I try to progress faster than I am ready for.SwissMsFollow your teacher's instructions and practice wisely/much, and you'll soon wonder how you ever found it hard. BobPicklePerformance anxiety: make it part of your daily routine and deal with it...Cope! zrtf90

this guy did well for only playing for 16 months - I do be believe he is actually on this forum as well so give him an email

Wow, thats amazing! 16 months huh. Well I think I would need a miracle to get there in 2.5 more years. lol

check his other videos on Youtube, he did Fantasie Impromptu as well. It's not as good as someone who's played for 10 years, however its a phenomenal job for someone with that little experience. Shows that it is possible with a lot of hard work and extreme dedication!! Keep the faith brother!

this guy did well for only playing for 16 months - I do be believe he is actually on this forum as well so give him an email

Here at Piano world he is Sam Rose, not Sirsardonic. He's really quite amazing....and a very pleasant fellow to boot!

_________________________ XVIII-XXXVISometimes I try to progress faster than I am ready for.SwissMsFollow your teacher's instructions and practice wisely/much, and you'll soon wonder how you ever found it hard. BobPicklePerformance anxiety: make it part of your daily routine and deal with it...Cope! zrtf90

[quote=sinophilia]Well, if you started with level 4 books surely you had already learned something during your "couple of years" by yourself, right?

At least give us self-learners some hope

haha.. well. I had one lesson with a teacher within 3 months of initially touching a piano and all I learned how to play were 2 pretty easy pieces and also hacked my way through Bach Invention 4, during the 3 months before the lesson that is. The first instructor suggested that I start with level 4. Im not sure why, of course that was my first and last lesson until a year ago. I brought all of my books and this teacher decided to start there as well.

I think the biggest differences between self learning and having an instructor has to be knowing where to go and what to do. Technique, at least for me, would be hard to even know at all, let alone do without a teacher. Having a teacher provides a systematic approach at learning.